Mistletoe Flies
by Kimimela Maeve
Summary: Lily doesn't trust the Marauders' choice of clothing for the Christmas ball...


Saturday afternoons usually found the Marauders busily planning or carrying out a practical joke. That particular Saturday afternoon, however, found them lazing around the common room. The following night was the night of the much-awaited Christmas ball, and most of the other Gryffindors had gone to Hogsmeade to purchase last minute dress robes and other accessories.

Sirius, James, and Remus _(A/N: Peter? Peter who?)_ supposedly already had their clothing for the following night sorted out. Lily, however, wasn't one to trust their fashion sense on such an important occasion.

"Remember guys, I'm checking your outfits for tomorrow night sometime today," Lily said for what must have been the hundredth time that day. Sirius regarded her dubious expression for a second, then turned to the others with a smirk.

"How about we go up now and you can check it in a few minutes?" he proposed, turning back to Lily. Remus and James groaned and slouched even further into their chairs, but Sirius would have none of it. "Come _on_," he said through gritted teeth, pulling them up by their ears.

"Ouch! Okay, okay! We get the point!" And with that Remus and James slunk after a bounding Sirius up the stairs, glancing at each other with worried expressions for their friend. Lily was left to wonder at Sirius' strange behaviour on her own in the common room, while the boys supposedly got ready for inspection in their dorm.

"Sirius, what has gotten into you?!" James exclaimed once they reached their dorm. "Yeah, since when do you _want _to get ready for Lily's inspection?" Remus put in, feeling Sirius' head for temperature. Sirius slapped Remus' hand away impatiently, and got out his wand.

"Since I was bored downstairs and wanted to have some fun," Sirius twirled his wand as he spoke, and finally it dawned on the slightly slow remaining Marauders what he had in mind. 

"Let's get to it then!" 

Waiting wasn't very high on Lily's list of virtues, and so she was about ready to barge into the boys' dorm, when _finally_ she heard James call "We're ready!" in a singsong voice from up the stairs. A new world record was surely set that day as Lily charged up the stairs, and stormed into their room. 

"Finally! Do you know how long…" Lily's angry outburst trailed off as she saw what they were wearing. 

The trio had dressed to match, and were standing in a position similar to that of the Charlie's Angels' usual pose. Their hair was gelled up into Elvis' trademark do, and each was wearing a huge pair of sunglasses. Their pants flared wide at the bottom, and the jacket was short and covered in sequins that flashed and blinked in the light. Sirius was dressed all in blue, Remus in red, and James in green. Needless to say, they looked perfectly ludicrous.

"Absolutely _not_!" Lily burst out, shock evident in her voice. She had known, of course, the minute Sirius was eager to get dressed for the inspection that they were up to something. The minute she stepped inside and saw what they had done she was also sure that they were only dressed as such to get a shocked reaction out of her. No, it wasn't the clothing itself that caused her outburst; it was their expressions. Although initially their faces had held ridiculous expressions to go with the outfits, they had now changed to expressions of speculation, satisfaction, and pride. From their facial expressions it was evident to Lily, who knew them all too well, that they were actually considering going to the ball dressed as they were.

"No, don't you _dare_! Don't even _think_ about it!" Lily was fumbling around her robes for her wand, but couldn't find it. Finally she decided that she'd just have to dispose of the outfits manually. She advanced on them, glaring threateningly. Before she could reach them, however, James stepped forward and picked her up easily, foiling her plans of destruction. Lily struggled, but it was no use, for James was much stronger than she was. "Put me down!" When James failed to comply with her furious exclamations, she tried instead to get to _his_ wand.

Meanwhile, Remus and Sirius were watching the struggle, thoroughly amused. The idea that Lily and James would make a great couple was not new to the two, but Lily's mad flailings in James' arms were only affirming their beliefs. They needed to take matters into their own hands and get the two together. 

The wheels in their heads were turning furiously, trying to come up with a plan, when Remus' eyes alighted on a simple sprig of mistletoe. It was lying innocently on the windowsill, put there to be enchanted later when the mischief-makers had come up with an adequate spell. Before he could get his wand and accio the mistletoe to overhead James and Lily, however, a breeze came through the open window and swept away the small plant. Remus sighed in frustration. "Now what? This is a golden opportunity, we can't just let it go!" he whispered desperately, glancing at the arguing couple who had by now fallen onto the floor because of the struggles, with James on top of Lily.

Sirius looked up at the ceiling, wishing he could get mistletoe up there simply by staring at the spot where it should be. Upon staring at the spot, however, Sirius discovered that it was already occupied. A fly was peacefully walking along on the ceiling, nearing the spot above the struggling Lily and James. Sirius quickly got out his wand and transfigured the fly into mistletoe, congratulating himself on his genius. 

Clearly Sirius had overestimated his genius, for the fly/mistletoe was still crawling around on the ceiling. It looked like mistletoe, though, and Remus didn't hesitate to get James and Lily's attention when the fly/mistletoe crawled to directly above them. "Hey! You two! Look up."

Lily and James paused in their struggles, and obediently looked up. "Is that… crawling mistletoe?" James asked, confused, while Lily simply raised an eyebrow. 

"Yes, it is. And you know what that means!" Sirius smirked, very happy with his handiwork, even if it was still crawling around.

Lily and James were staring at each other, a bit unsure. James was still on top of Lily, who had her hands around his throat. They were so engrossed in each other that they didn't realise that the fly/mistletoe had by now crawled along its merry way and was across the room, nowhere near them. Finally Lily grinned at James, and when he smiled lopsidedly back at her she moved her hands from around his throat down to his shirt collar, and pulled his face down to close the few inches between their faces.

Remus and Sirius smiled happily at the couple on the floor, who's struggles and shouts and arguing had been replaced by kissing. Remus was just turning to Sirius to congratulate him on a job well done when they heard a muffled "eeeeww!!"

Lily and James had been happily kissing, ignoring the fact that the mistletoe tradition only called for a short kiss, when Lily had moved her hands to James' hair. His hair, of course, was still full of gel, hence the "eeeeww!!" that interrupted their first kiss. Reluctantly James pulled away, but only long enough to reach for his wand and turn himself back to normal. "Happy?" he asked Lily, who smiled in return. "Much," she said, before pulling him back down. 

__

Author's Notes: Do you know, I've never seen mistletoe! I have no idea what it looks like…


End file.
